1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical terminal for routing a line through a housing wall, with a rectangular terminal housing of insulating material, with at least one connecting element and with a mounting element for fixing the terminal in a rectangular wall opening of the housing wall, the mounting element having at least one fixing element. In addition, the invention relates to a mounting element for fixing an electrical terminal in the wall opening of a housing wall, with at least one fixing element.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical terminals or electrical connectors for routing a line through a housing wall are often also called bushing terminals or bushing connectors. Both one-part and also two-part bushing terminals are known. In the two-part bushing terminals one part of the terminal is mounted in the housing wall opening, while the other part is electrically and mechanically connected to the part which has been mounted in the wall opening—the plug part.
Electrical connectors are used in electrical terminals together with the corresponding attachment plugs for connecting an electrical conductor to the electronics of a device. Depending on the embodiment, the electrical connector can be made as a socket part or as a plug part. Since the electrical connector is electrically and mechanically connected to the electronics or to the housing of the device, while an electrical line is connected to the corresponding attachment plug, a stationary electrical connector is often called the base body or base housing. Various embodiments of electrical connectors or the corresponding attachment plugs, i.e. different base bodies and different plug parts, are known for example from the Phoenix Contact Catalog “COMBICON 2002”, pages 196 to 203.
In this case, the different plug parts differ especially by the different connection possibilities for the conductors to be connected. Thus, plug parts with screw, spring force, crimp and insulation piercing terminals are known. Conversely, the connectors and the base bodies differ especially in whether the contact element as the contact leg has a pin contact or a socket contact, the version with the pin contact constituting the standard version. If the electrical connector has a pin contact as the contact leg, the connector is made as a socket part into which the attachment plug which has a socket contact is inserted.
For fixing in the wall opening in the housing, it is immaterial whether an electrical terminal or an electrical connector is involved. For this reason, within the framework of the invention an electrical terminal is always addressed below, this also to be understood as an electrical connector.
Various possibilities are known for attaching the electrical terminals in the wall opening of the housing wall. German Patent DE 36 13 681 C1 discloses for example a two-part terminal, the two parts of the electrical terminal having catch elements which correspond to one another and which lock with one another and prevent separation of the two terminal parts opposite the joining direction when the two terminal parts are inserted into one another. Both parts of the terminal are inserted in the direction which is the opposite at the time through the opening in the housing wall so that the housing wall is clamped between the parts of the terminal.
A comparable principle is followed by the teaching of German Patent DE 198 01 260 C2 in which the one-part terminal housing is routed through the wall opening. The insertion process is limited by a stop on the terminal housing. Then a catch clip is slipped onto the part of the electrical terminal routed through the wall opening and locks with the two opposing sides of the housing of the terminal so that the housing wall is fixed between the stop on one side and the catch clip on the other side.
The disadvantage in the described attachment possibilities under certain circumstances can be major mounting problems which arise solely by the housing wall having to be accessible on both sides, therefore from the inside of the housing and also the outside of the housing. Furthermore, for only poorly accessible mounting sites there is the danger that one component of the terminals which is made in several parts can be lost.
German Utility Model DE 202 00 974 U1 discloses a one-piece terminal which is inserted through the wall opening of the housing, when the terminal is inserted through the wall opening spring catches provided on two opposing sides of the terminal each being forced back by the inside edge of the wall opening, the spring catches springing back after passing through the wall and thus locking with the corresponding inside edge of the wall opening. For final fixing of the terminal in the wall opening, the spring catches must be prevented from spring back again by a blocking slide which can only be operated from inside the housing, while the terminal must be inserted first from the outside into the wall opening so that access to the two sides of the housing wall is also necessary here.
German Patent Application DE 103 15 661 A1 underlying the invention discloses an electrical terminal which is inserted as a unit into the wall opening of the housing wall up to a stop, whereupon locking elements can be pressed by an actuating element against two opposing inside edges of the wall opening, so that the electrical terminal is fixed securely in the wall opening in the direction of action of the locking elements.
However, the disadvantage here can also be that locking takes place only with two opposing edges of the wall opening. This results in that in the presence of a tolerance between the electrical terminal and the wall opening, movement of the terminal in the wall opening cannot be reliably prevented.